Dead Man's Hand

Just finished with another fun-filled Cutting Table Table Games conference. This show is a lot more fun and friendly than G2E. Starving game inventors have pretty much been priced out of G2E while Cutting Edge is much more affordable. This is the place to see mostly the little guys show their stuff. For anyone with any interest in the business of inventing new table games, I recommend this show over G2E.

Dead Man's Hand was there. I have heard of this blackjack side bet being seen in Deadwood SD but never knew the pay table or for sure if it was still there. However, the owner was there showing it. This was a simple analysis so banged it out just now. Here is the return table, based on six decks.

Event	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Two A-8 in first two hands after splitting	100	127,424,967,280,200	0.000070	0.007000
One A-8 in first two hands after splitting	20	3,058,837,136,964,000	0.001680	0.033606
8-8 or A-A in first two cards	4	18,351,874,609,645,500	0.010081	0.040325
A-8 in first two cards	4	21,543,527,987,159,800	0.011835	0.047338
Ace or eight in first two cards	2	473,957,615,717,515,000	0.260360	0.520720
All other	-1	1,303,353,791,220,180,000	0.715974	-0.715974
Total		1,820,393,071,638,740,000	1.000000	-0.066984

The owner mentioned something about another pay table but I don't remember the details. If they actually use something in Deadwood different from this, please let me know.

If anyone would be so kind as to confirm to contradict my math, I would be quite grateful.

The question for the poll is would you make this side bet?

Am I reading that chart incorrectly or are those terrible odds?

Quote: TigerWu

Am I reading that chart incorrectly or are those terrible odds?

6.7% house edge for a side bet is not that bad. Depends on your definition of "terrible." There are better bets and there are worse.

Quote: Wizard

6.7% house edge for a side bet is not that bad. Depends on your definition of "terrible." There are better bets and there are worse.

Gotcha. Thanks! I do personally think those are terrible odds.

6.7% for a side bet is pretty ok, and this seems extremely countable with a specific side count! would like to try it

Quote: tyler498

6.7% for a side bet is pretty ok, and this seems extremely countable with a specific side count! would like to try it

I think this bet has been there for years. Either counters never go there or its on a continuous shuffler.

Here is my Wizard of Odds analysis of the side bet. As always, I welcome all questions, comments, and especially corrections.

Your intro says straights and 8’s. What happens if the dealer gets a bj? Does the player still get 2 cards on their pairs of aces or eights?

Quote: miplet

Your intro says straights and 8’s. What happens if the dealer gets a bj? Does the player still get 2 cards on their pairs of aces or eights?

Thanks for the correction.

I interpreted it that the player could not split against a dealer blackjack.